Netanyahu confirms Israel will return to ceasefire negotiations

Both US and Israeli negotiators withdrew from talks in Doha last month, accusing Hamas of refusing to act "in good faith".

But the renewed offensive on Gaza City appears to have prompted the terror group to offer concessions in the form of a proposed 60-day ceasefire and partial hostage return, which it confirmed it had agreed to last week.

However, Netanyahu's comments seemingly rule out.a partial deal, with the Israeli cabinet ruling last month that only a full, simultaneous release of hostages and agreement to Jerusalem's terms would end the war.

These are understood to entail the complete disarmament and surrender of Hamas, the installation of a new government run by neither Hamas nor the PA and the complete demilitarisation of Gaza.

Hamas fired too soon”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu also claimed – in a separate interview – that the October 7 attacks were directly coordinated by Iran and planned to be much larger.

Speaking on the Triggernometry podcast, he suggested that the assault was meant to be a larger effort involving Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Syria.

He said: "Well what happened on the Israeli side needs to be investigated by an impartial commission.

"But what we learned was that this was part of the Iranian terror axis.

"Iran had built this network of proxies with the goal of annihilating Israel by a simultaneous invasion from the south with Hamas, from the north with Hezbollah."

This, he went on, was to be combined with a massive bombardment of Israel from both Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the Houthis in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq and Syria.

"This was meant to be a simultaneous surprise attack that would hobble Israel and destroy it," he added.

"Hamas fired too soon...it costs us a horrendous cost of 1,200 innocent people murdered savagely but it gave us time to block potential invasion from Hezbollah and organise the counterattack."